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The Root

God's Creations

In the Quran, the same word is used for a verse and for something in creation, like the rain. Both are signs, and both were put there for us to read and understand.

In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those who possess intelligence.

[3:190]

God tells us where He has placed His proofs, and you will notice that they are not only in the pages of the Quran: “We will show them our proofs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth.” [41:53] The “We” in this verse is God speaking about Himself.

So God shows us His proofs in two places: out in the horizons, and inside ourselves. This is why, in the Quran, a verse and something like a rainstorm are both called a sign.

On this page, we will not only admire creation. We will try to read it, the way God asks us to. First, we will look at what a sign is. Then we will look at what the signs around us point to, and after that, what the signs inside us point to. Finally, we will look at some places where people discovered, much later, what the Quran had already told us.

On This Page

The page has five parts. At the end of most of them, you will find the questions people usually ask about that topic, along with their answers from the Quran.

What a Sign Is

Let's begin with the verse that tells us how to look at creation: “In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those who possess intelligence.” [3:190]

If you look closely, this verse has two parts. There is something there to be seen, and there has to be someone who actually looks at it and thinks about it. The verse also tells us who that someone is: those who possess intelligence.

So a sign works like a pointer. It points us towards God, but it does not force anyone to believe, the way a proof in a courtroom tries to. A sign helps the person who is willing to follow where it points, and for someone who is not willing, it does nothing at all.

It also matters who is doing the showing, and God tells us that He is the One who shows us these signs: “We will show them our proofs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth. Is your Lord not sufficient, as a witness of all things?” [41:53]

Among His Proofs

There is a phrase that God uses again and again in the Quran: among His proofs. If we follow this phrase through the Quran, we will be surprised, because what comes after it is very often not what we would expect.

Some of the things on this list are what we would expect, like the heavens and the earth: “Among His proofs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the creatures He spreads in them.” [42:29]

But God also lists marriage among His proofs: “Among His proofs is that He created for you spouses from among yourselves, in order to have tranquility and contentment with each other, and He placed in your hearts love and care towards your spouses.” [30:21]

And then there is the verse that surprises most readers: “Among His proofs is your sleeping during the night or the day, and your working in pursuit of His provisions.” [30:23] Please notice that our sleep and our going to work are placed in the same list as the creation of the heavens and the earth.

There is a pattern here that is worth pointing out. Several of these verses end by telling us who the proof is for: people who think, people who are knowledgeable, and people who can hear [30:21-23]. And when one of these verses names something close to us, it is usually something we stopped noticing a long time ago.

The Signs We Stop Noticing

So God's invitation to look at His signs is much bigger than looking up at the night sky. The night sky is on the list, and God put it there, but so are a great many ordinary things that nobody ever thinks of taking a picture of.

God keeps reminding us of this: “Do you not see that GOD has committed in your service everything in the heavens and the earth, and has showered you with His blessings— obvious and hidden?” [31:20] Please notice that the blessings are both obvious and hidden, and most of them are the hidden kind, the ones we never think about.

God also tells us that this list is longer than anyone could ever go through: “If you count GOD's blessings, you cannot possibly encompass them.” [16:18] This should not discourage us. It actually makes things clearer for us, because we were never asked to finish the list. We are only asked to stop walking past it without noticing.

So it is a good idea to take just one item from this list, like last night's sleep, this morning's work, the person we married, or a language we will never speak. If we think about it for two minutes, and ask ourselves honestly what it would take to design it from nothing, we will start to see it as a sign from God.

Questions About Signs

What does the Quran mean when it calls something a sign?

A sign is a pointer. It is something God has put in the world for us to read, and it points to the One who made it. The same word is used for both kinds of sign. A verse of the Quran is a sign, and so is the night turning into day: “In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those who possess intelligence.” [3:190] A sign does not force anyone to believe. It helps the person who is willing to follow where it points. This is why God tells us, in so many of these verses, who the signs are for: people who think, people who are knowledgeable, and people who can hear [30:21-23].

The Quran says people pass the proofs by. What are we missing?

Mostly, we are missing the ordinary things, because we stopped noticing them a long time ago. If you look at what God puts on the list, you will notice marriage, sleep, a day's work, our languages and our colours [30:21-23]. None of these are unusual, and yet all of them are named as proofs. God also tells us how much of it we do not see: He “has showered you with His blessings— obvious and hidden.” [31:20] He tells us as well that we could not finish counting His blessings even if we tried [16:18]. So the information is already all around us, and what we are really missing is the attention to notice it.

Is noticing creation a form of worship, or just appreciation?

Noticing creation becomes worship when it leads us to be thankful to God and to remember Him. On its own, admiring something is only a feeling. God tells us why He gave us these abilities: “And He gave you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brains; rarely are you thankful.” [32:9] So our hearing, our eyesight and our minds were given to us with a purpose. God also commands us to remember Him after the Contact Prayer (Salat): “Once you complete your Contact Prayer (Salat), you shall remember GOD while standing, sitting, or lying down.” [4:103] Standing, sitting and lying down covers most of our day, and that is exactly where most of our noticing happens.

The World Around Us

Now that we have looked at what a sign is, let's look at the signs in the world around us. When God tells us about living things, He starts with one substance, and He describes it in the widest possible terms.

God tells us: “And GOD created every living creature from water. Some of them walk on their bellies, some walk on two legs, and some walk on four. GOD creates whatever He wills. GOD is Omnipotent.” [24:45]

God says the same thing about the beginning of all life: “And from water we made all living things.” [21:30] And He says it about us in particular: “He is the One who created from water a human being.” [25:54]

So every living creature comes from the same material. Please notice that the verse then groups the creatures by the way they move, which is how someone describes things after watching them closely.

Rain, Seed and Fruit

From there, God follows the water step by step. He tells us that He is the One acting at every step, and that this is not a cycle that runs by itself while He stands behind it.

God tells us: “GOD is the One who sends the winds, to stir up clouds, to be spread throughout the sky in accordance with His will. He then piles the clouds up, then you see the rain coming down therefrom.” [30:48]

God then tells us in detail what the water does next: “He is the One who sends down from the sky water, whereby we produce all kinds of plants. We produce from the green material multitudes of complex grains, palm trees with hanging clusters, and gardens of grapes, olives and pomegranate; fruits that are similar, yet dissimilar. Note their fruits as they grow and ripen.” [6:99]

There are two things in this verse that are easy to miss. The first is that God asks us to note the fruits as they grow and ripen. This means watching something carefully for weeks, and not just glancing at it once. The second is the phrase “similar, yet dissimilar”. The same rain falls on the same soil, and out of it come fruits that are completely different from each other.

The same water also carries a second meaning: “And we revive with it dead lands; you are similarly resurrected.” [50:11] So in one sentence, the rain is a sign of how God provides for us, and also a sign of what will happen to us when we are resurrected.

Communities Like Us

There is one verse about animals that is easy to quote, but hard to really take in: “All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this book. To their Lord, all these creatures will be summoned.” [6:38]

God tells us that animals are communities like us, and that they will be summoned to their Lord, just as we will be. As we understand it, animals were among the creatures who took God's offer to repent.

This understanding fits the way God talks about particular creatures in the Quran. When He mentions them, He is showing us the attention He gives them, and He is not giving them instructions the way He gives us. He inspires the bee where to build [16:68]. An ant warns its own colony, and the Quran quotes what it said [27:18]. The birds flying above us are held up in the air by God [67:19].

God also reproaches people directly for not thinking about one of these creatures: “Why do they not reflect on the camels and how they are created?” [88:17]

Five Creatures the Quran Names

Each of these creatures is named in the Quran for a reason, and you will find that reason in the verse next to it.

The bee

“And your Lord inspired the bee: build homes in mountains and trees.” [16:68] The next verse tells us what comes out of the bee: “From their bellies comes a drink of different colors, wherein there is healing for the people.” [16:69]

[16:68-69]

The ant

“When they approached the valley of the ants, one ant said, ‘O you ants, go into your homes, lest you get crushed by Solomon and his soldiers, without perceiving.’” [27:18] Please notice that the Quran quotes an ant here, and that what the ant says contains both a warning and the reason for that warning.

[27:18]

The spider

“The allegory of those who accept other masters beside GOD is that of the spider and her home; the flimsiest of all homes is the home of the spider.” [29:41] Please notice that the verse speaks of the spider as her. This is interesting, because the female black widow spider is known to kill her mate.

[29:41]

The camel

“Why do they not reflect on the camels and how they are created?” [88:17] This verse is part of a passage that goes on to name the sky, the mountains and the earth. If you look closely, you will notice that the camel is mentioned first, before any of them.

[88:17]

The birds

“Have they not seen the birds above them lined up in columns and spreading their wings? The Most Gracious is the One who holds them in the air.” [67:19] Please notice that the verse does not say the wings keep the birds in the air. It tells us that God is the One who holds them there.

[67:19]

The Variety in Creation

There is one more thing about the world around us that is worth thinking about carefully, because nothing required it to be this way. God keeps drawing our attention to how different things are from each other, simply for the sake of that difference.

God tells us: “Do you not realize that GOD sends down from the sky water, whereby we produce fruits of various colors? Even the mountains have different colors; the peaks are white, or red, or some other color. And the ravens are black.” [35:27]

None of these colours had to be there. A fruit does not need a colour to feed anyone, and a mountain does not need a colour at all.

The next verse widens this to include us, and then it tells us something we might not expect about who responds to these signs: “Also, the people, the animals, and the livestock come in various colors. This is why the people who truly reverence GOD are those who are knowledgeable.” [35:28]

God tells us that nothing in this arrangement is careless, and He says this about the whole of creation: “Have they not looked at the sky above them, and how we constructed it and adorned it, without a flaw?” [50:6] Please notice the two words in this verse, constructed and adorned. Only the first one was necessary, and God did the second one as well.

Questions About the Living World

Why does the Quran keep pointing at rain, seeds and the sky?

Because these are signs that everybody has seen, and because each one carries two meanings at the same time. The first meaning is provision. God sends the winds, piles up the clouds and sends down the water, and out of it comes food that is “similar, yet dissimilar” [6:99], [30:48]. The second meaning is resurrection. God uses the same rain to answer people's doubts about the Hereafter: “And we revive with it dead lands; you are similarly resurrected.” [50:11] Dead land coming back to life is the closest thing to a demonstration of the resurrection that we are given in this life.

Why does the Quran talk about bees, ants and spiders?

Because small creatures make the point more clearly than large ones. Nothing they do can be explained by their own cleverness. The bee is told where to build and what to eat, and what comes out of it heals people [16:68-69]. An ant warns its colony, and the Quran records its words [27:18]. The home of the spider is used as an example of a weak place of refuge [29:41]. God also places all of these creatures on the same level as us: “All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you.” [6:38] So these small creatures are not a side note in the Quran. God tells us that they are communities, just as we are.

Does the Quran speak of life other than ours?

Yes, in two ways. The Quran tells us about creatures spread throughout the heavens and the earth, and it also tells us about the jinn, who are a separate creation. God tells us: “Among His proofs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the creatures He spreads in them. He is able to summon them, when He wills.” [42:29] So there are creatures in both the heavens and the earth, and God is able to summon them whenever He wills. God also tells us about the seven universes that “we are never unaware of a single creature in them” [23:17]. Beyond this, God has not described these creatures to us, so we leave that knowledge with Him and do not make any claims about it.

Are jinn real?

Yes, jinn are real, and God tells us clearly what they are. They are made of fire: “And created the jinns from blazing fire.” [55:15] They were created for the same reason we were: “I did not create the jinns and the humans except to worship Me alone.” [51:56] This means they have a choice, just like we do. Some of them choose well, and some of them do not. A group of jinn once heard the Quran and believed in it, and God quotes what they said: “It guides to righteousness, and we have believed in it; we will never set up any idols besides our Lord.” [72:2] Satan became one of the jinn by his own choice. When he refused to prostrate before Adam, he “became a jinn, for he disobeyed the order of His Lord.” [18:50] So the jinn are creatures under God's authority, and they are being tested just as we are. None of them is a power beside God.

Can jinn harm us, and should we be afraid of them?

Jinn can bring trouble to people who go looking for them, and God gives us the one protection that really works. God tells us what happened to people who tried to use the jinn: “Human beings used to seek power through jinn beings, but they only afflicted them with a lot of adversity.” [72:6] So these people never got the power they were looking for, and all they got was trouble. The jinn also do not know the unseen, just like us. When Solomon died, the jinn who were working for him carried on working, because they had no idea that he had died. They realized then “that if they really knew the unseen, they would have stopped working so hard as soon as he died.” [34:14] What the jinn can do is whisper to us, and God answers this with a command: “When the devil whispers an idea to you, you shall seek refuge in GOD. He is the Hearer, the Omniscient.” [41:36] The last sura of the Quran ends on the same subject, and it tells us who the whisperers are: “Be they of the jinns, or the people.” [114:6] So our protection is God, and this protection is there for anyone who asks Him for it.

Are angels real, and what do they do?

Yes, angels are real, and the Quran tells us specifically what they do. God appoints them to carry His messages. He is the “appointer of the angels to be messengers with wings—two, three, and four (wings).” [35:1] Two angels keep the record of each person's life: “Two recording (angels), at right and at left, are constantly recording.” [50:17] This is something serious for each of us to think about. God also corrects something people claimed about the angels. Some people said the angels were female, and God answers this claim seriously: “They claimed that the angels, who are servants of the Most Gracious, are females! Have they witnessed their creation? Their claims are recorded, and they will be asked.” [43:19] The most important thing to know about the angels is what they do not have: “Not even the angels in heaven possess authority to intercede.” [53:26] So the angels are servants of God, just like us, and they should never be prayed to.

The World Inside Us

So far, we have looked at the signs in the world around us. Now let's look at the signs inside ourselves. Verse 41:53 talked about two things, the horizons and ourselves. We have looked at the horizons, and now we come to the second half, which the Quran talks about much more than most readers expect.

Since yesterday morning, each of us has taken something like twenty thousand breaths, and we did not choose to take any of them. In the same time, our heart has beaten about a hundred thousand times without us asking it to.

God opens this subject with an instruction, rather than a description: “Let the human reflect on his creation.” [86:5] Please notice that God is not asking us to reflect on creation in general here. He is asking us to reflect on our own creation.

Made in Stages

What God tells us next is a sequence of stages, and at every one of these stages, God is the One who is acting.

God tells us: “We created the human being from a certain kind of mud. Subsequently, we reproduced him from a tiny drop, that is placed into a well protected repository. Then we developed the drop into a hanging (embryo), then developed the hanging (embryo) into a bite-size (fetus), then created the bite-size (fetus) into bones, then covered the bones with flesh.” [23:12-14]

If you look closely at the verbs in this passage, you will notice that God created, reproduced, developed, developed again, created and covered. Nothing in this passage happens by itself.

God also says the same thing in a shorter way: “He is the One who created you in stages.” [71:14]

It is worth noticing why God tells us about these stages. Almost every time these stages appear in the Quran, God is talking about resurrection or about reverence for Him, and not about biology: “O people, if you have any doubt about resurrection, (remember that) we created you from dust, and subsequently from a tiny drop…” [22:5]

Down to the Fingertip

There is one detail in this discussion that deserves its own section. God mentions the doubt people actually have, and then He answers it by naming a part of the body that nobody would have thought to mention.

God tells us: “Does the human being think that we will not reconstruct his bones? Yes indeed; we are able to reconstruct his finger tip.” [75:3-4]

Please notice that God does not stop at the bones. He mentions the fingertip. So the verse goes beyond the large parts of the body, and tells us that God is able to restore even the smallest detail of it.

What we now know about fingerprints makes this a remarkable choice, and it is fair to say so. Having said that, the verse is talking about something else. It is about the Day of Resurrection, and the fingertip is mentioned because it is one of the smallest details of our body.

Hearing, Eyesight and Understanding

The last thing God tells us about what is inside a person is about our abilities themselves, and He tells us their purpose at the same time.

God tells us: “He shaped him and blew into him from His spirit. And He gave you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brains; rarely are you thankful.” [32:9]

So our ability to read a sign is itself a sign, and it was given to us for a reason. Our hearing, our eyesight and our understanding were given to us so that we would notice God and thank Him [67:23].

Before we finish this part, there is one correction we need to make, because this page could otherwise give the wrong impression. The fact that we are full of signs does not make us the centre of creation: “The creation of the heavens and the earth is even more awesome than the creation of the human being, but most people do not know.” [40:57]

Questions About Ourselves

What does the Quran say about how a human being is formed?

The Quran describes a sequence of stages, and God is the One acting at each stage. The most complete passage starts with mud, and then “a tiny drop, that is placed into a well protected repository” [23:13]. After that come a hanging embryo, a bite-size fetus, bones, and then flesh covering the bones [23:14]. God sums it up in another verse: “He is the One who created you in stages.” [71:14] These passages are not there to teach us biology. If you look at where they appear, you will notice that they are about resurrection: “O people, if you have any doubt about resurrection, (remember that) we created you from dust.” [22:5] So the stages are there to show us what God is able to do when He brings us back.

Why does the Quran single out the fingertip?

Because God answers a question about something big by pointing to the smallest detail of the body. Someone doubts that bones that have been scattered could ever be put back together. God answers: “Yes indeed; we are able to reconstruct his finger tip.” [75:4] Please notice that God does not mention the whole skeleton. He mentions the tip of a finger. It is remarkable that the fingertip happens to be the part of the body that carries the finest detail. But the verse is about something else. It is about the Day of Resurrection, and it tells us that nothing is too small for God.

Does all this mean human beings are the centre of creation?

No. God corrects this idea directly: “The creation of the heavens and the earth is even more awesome than the creation of the human being, but most people do not know.” [40:57] God also tells us that all of creation glorifies Him, even without us: “Glorifying Him are the seven universes, the earth, and everyone in them. There is nothing that does not glorify Him.” [17:44] What we have been given is a short test, along with the abilities we need to notice who set that test. And God reminds us how we usually respond: “rarely are you thankful.” [32:9]

Stated First, Found Later

So far, we have looked at the signs around us and the signs inside us. Now let's look at some things the Quran stated very plainly, which people only discovered a long time afterwards. Below, you will find seven of them, with the sources named so that you can follow them and check them for yourself.

There is one thing we should be clear about from the start. We are not checking the Quran against these findings to see if it is right. The findings came much later, and they arrived at what the Quran had already said.

It is also important to remember that none of these verses needed science to confirm them. Each one of them is making a different point, whether it is about resurrection, about reverence for God, or about who created all of this.

Seven Places

Fact 01The Expanding Universe

We constructed the sky with our hands, and we will continue to expand it.[51:47]
Countless galaxies, spirals and soft glowing ellipticals, spreading outward through deep space from a warm golden centre.
An artist's impression of galaxies moving apart as space expands. Not a telescope photograph.

For most of the history of science, people believed the universe had a fixed size. That idea came to an end in 1929. Edwin Hubble combined measurements of distance with the radial velocities that Vesto Slipher had been collecting since 1912. He published what is now called the Hubble–Lemaître law, which tells us that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us. In other words, the universe is getting larger. Today, the fact that the universe is expanding is one of the most firmly established facts in astronomy, and it has been confirmed in several independent ways. Then in 1998, two teams of scientists found that the expansion is speeding up, and not slowing down. That work won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. The verse tells us that God built the sky and that He is still expanding it. Please notice the tense of the verb. The verse does not say that God expanded the sky and then stopped. It says “we will continue to expand it” [51:47]. So something that is still happening is described as still happening, fourteen centuries before anyone was able to measure it.

Source: Hubble, E. (1929), PNAS 15(3): 168–173 · Riess et al. (1998), Astronomical Journal 116: 1009 · Perlmutter et al. (1999), Astrophysical Journal 517: 565 · Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

Fact 02The Sky That Guards

And we rendered the sky a guarded ceiling. Yet, they are totally oblivious to all the portents therein.[21:32]
Earth from space with the thin blue atmosphere glowing along its rim, meteors streaking above it and green aurora near the pole.
An artist's impression of the atmosphere around the Earth. Not a photograph.

The Quran calls the sky a guarded ceiling, and it tells us what the guarding is for: “And we guarded it against every rejected devil. If any of them sneaks around to listen, a mighty projectile will chase him back.” [15:17-18] God says the same thing in two other places. He “guarded its borders with projectiles against the devils” [67:5], and “We guarded it from every evil devil.” [37:7] So the Quran tells us four times that the sky has a guarded border. The sky also protects us in a second way, and none of this was known when the verse was revealed. The ozone in the stratosphere absorbs 97 to 99 percent of the sun's ultraviolet light in the 200 to 315 nanometre band. These are the wavelengths that damage DNA, and without this protection, nothing could live on an exposed surface. The atmosphere also burns up the overwhelming majority of the rock that falls toward us. And it keeps the surface within a range of temperature that life can survive, at an average of about fifteen degrees Celsius, instead of swinging between extremes. So there are three shields, and each one of them is necessary, in what looks to us from the ground like empty air. So the sky is a ceiling, and a guarded one, at every level people have since been able to study. The verse then tells us something that is still true today, which is that people are oblivious to all of it.

Source: Fabry, C. & Buisson, H. (1913), Journal de Physique, on atmospheric ozone · WMO Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion, for the absorbed fraction · NASA, on atmospheric entry and mean surface temperature

Fact 03All Life From Water

Do the unbelievers not realize that the heaven and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded into existence? And from water we made all living things. Would they believe?[21:30]
A clear water droplet on a green leaf, with tiny green shoots growing inside and beside it.
An illustration, not a photograph.

Every living thing we know of needs water to metabolise and to reproduce. Cells are mostly made of water by mass. The chemistry of life takes place in water, and it stops without it. Even the shape that DNA holds depends on the layer of water molecules around it. There is no exception to this anywhere in biology. Water is also where the search for life beyond this planet begins. The first question scientists ask about any other world is whether it has liquid water now, or whether it ever had it. Nothing else is known to do the job that water does. The Quran states this rule plainly, and then gives an example of it: “And GOD created every living creature from water. Some of them walk on their bellies, some walk on two legs, and some walk on four. GOD creates whatever He wills. GOD is Omnipotent.” [24:45] So every living creature comes from one substance, and the verse then groups them by how they move, which is the way someone describes things after watching them closely.

Source: Ball, P. (2008), Water as an active constituent in cell biology, Chemical Reviews 108(1): 74–108 · NASA Mars Exploration Program, Follow the Water

Fact 04The Stages in the Womb

We created the human being from a certain kind of mud. Subsequently, we reproduced him from a tiny drop, that is placed into a well protected repository. Then we developed the drop into a hanging (embryo), then developed the hanging (embryo) into a bite-size (fetus), then created the bite-size (fetus) into bones, then covered the bones with flesh. We thus produce a new creature. Most blessed is GOD, the best Creator.[23:12-14]
An early human embryo curled inside a softly glowing sac.
An illustration of an early embryo, not a photograph.

The verse gives us the sequence of stages, and here is what scientists found with the microscope, centuries later. First, the verse mentions a drop placed somewhere protected. The fertilised egg travels to the uterus and implants itself there, and it is completely embedded in the wall of the uterus by about the eleventh day. Then it mentions a hanging thing, which is attached to that wall and soon hangs from the stalk that later becomes the umbilical cord. Then it mentions something bite-size. At around four weeks, a row of blocks forms along the back of the embryo, and this gives it a notched outline. Then bones, and then flesh covering the bones. Cartilage models of the limbs and the spine are laid down, and they begin to harden from the sixth to the eighth week, while muscle forms around that frame. These are five terms, in exactly that order. They were written down at a time when nobody was able to see the early weeks at all. The Quran also tells us why it is telling us this. Wherever these stages appear, they are answering people's doubts about resurrection. If God put us together once from that, He is able to do it again [22:5].

Source: O'Rahilly, R. & Müller, F. (1987), Developmental Stages in Human Embryos, Carnegie Institution of Washington · Schoenwolf, G. et al., Larsen's Human Embryology, on myogenesis and ossification timings

Fact 05Down to the Fingertip

Does the human being think that we will not reconstruct his bones? Yes indeed; we are able to reconstruct his finger tip.[75:3-4]
Close-up of a human fingertip showing the swirling ridges of a fingerprint.
An illustration, not a photograph.

Someone doubts that a body that decayed long ago could be put back together. God's answer does not argue about the bones. It goes to something smaller, which is the fingertip. The friction ridges on our fingertips start forming in the womb from around the tenth week. They settle into their pattern by about the sixth month, and they keep that pattern for life. No two prints from different people have ever been shown to be indistinguishable at the level of ridge detail. This is true even for identical twins, whose fingerprints are different even though their DNA is not. Francis Galton published the first major study of fingerprints in 1892, and in the same year, fingerprints were used for the first time to identify a criminal. God could have named any part of the body to answer a question about how much He is able to restore. The verse names the one part that, as we now know, carries the finest detail of the whole human body.

Source: Galton, F. (1892), Finger Prints, Macmillan · Jain, Prabhakar & Pankanti (2002), On the similarity of identical twin fingerprints, Pattern Recognition 35(11): 2653–2663

Fact 06The Sun Is Going Somewhere

The sun sets into a specific location, according to the design of the Almighty, the Omniscient.[36:38]
The Milky Way seen from far above, a bright spiral galaxy, with one small star marked partway out on an arm and a thin line tracing its long path around the centre.
An artist's impression of the Milky Way. The small marked star is the Sun, carried on its long path around the galaxy's centre.

The sun has a destination. It carries the whole solar system around the centre of the Milky Way at a speed somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 kilometres per hour, and it takes over two hundred million years to complete one circuit. Compared with the stars nearest to us, the sun is travelling toward a particular point in the constellation Hercules. This point is called the solar apex, and it was first inferred by William Herschel in 1783. Nothing in the universe is standing still, and the verse two lines later tells us this about the whole arrangement: “The sun is never to catch up with the moon—the night and the day never deviate—each of them is floating in its own orbit.” [36:40] So each one is in its own orbit, the sun is heading toward a specific location, and all of it follows a design that God tells us about. This is a verse about movement with a purpose, and it was revealed at a time when the only movement of the sun people could describe was its daily and yearly path.

Source: Schönrich, R., Binney, J. & Dehnen, W. (2010), MNRAS 403(4): 1829–1833, on the solar apex · GRAVITY Collaboration (2019) and Reid & Brunthaler (2020), on the galactic circular speed · Herschel, W. (1783), Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 73: 247–283

Fact 07Skin, and the Renewing of It

Surely, those who disbelieve in our revelations, we will condemn them to the hellfire. Whenever their skins are burnt, we will give them new skins. Thus, they will suffer continuously. GOD is Almighty, Most Wise.[4:56]
A cross-section of human skin showing its three layers, with nerve fibres branching up into them.
An illustration of the layers of the skin.

The nerve endings that feel pain on the surface of the body are in the skin. When a burn destroys the full thickness of the skin, it destroys these nerve endings as well. This is why the deepest burns can have no feeling at their centre, while the shallower burn around them is extremely painful. For the pain on the surface to continue, the skin itself has to be there to feel it. This is exactly what the verse depends on. The skins are burnt, new skins are given, and the reason given for the new skins is that the suffering continues. If we take away the part about the skin, the sentence no longer works. Sherrington established in 1906 that pain has its own dedicated receptors, and how these receptors fire was worked out a century after that. The verse had already made the renewing of the skin the condition for the suffering to continue.

Source: Sherrington, C. S. (1906), The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, Yale University Press · Basbaum, A. I. et al. (2009), Cell 139(2): 267–284

What About Evolution?

A page about creation cannot leave out this question, so let's look at the position of this site plainly.

Change within a kind is not in dispute, and it does not cause any problem for anything the Quran says. What we do not accept is the claim that the whole process is unguided, meaning that nobody designed it, and that a human being is simply the end of a long chain of accidents.

The argument people usually make alongside this one is about the odds. The chance of the necessary molecules putting themselves together by accident is so small that chance is not a serious answer. That argument may have some value, but it is not the argument the Quran makes.

What the Quran tells us is simpler, and it does not depend on anyone's calculations. It asks who made all of this, and it asks us: “Is One who creates like one who does not create? Would you now take heed?” [16:17]

Questions About Science and Scripture

Does the Quran say anything about how the universe began?

Yes, it does, in one sentence: “Do the unbelievers not realize that the heaven and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded into existence?” [21:30] The same verse also tells us where life came from: “And from water we made all living things.” [21:30] So there are two statements next to each other in the same verse. The Quran also describes the sky as work that is still going on: “We constructed the sky with our hands, and we will continue to expand it.” [51:47] The Quran simply states these things. It does not try to prove them, because the point it is making is about something else, which is who created all of it.

Does the Quran accept evolution?

The Quran does not talk about the mechanism, but it does rule out one version of the conclusion. Change within a kind is not a problem. What the Quran does not allow is the idea of a process with nobody behind it. God tells us that He is the One acting at every stage of our creation: He created, reproduced, developed and covered [23:12-14]. God's question to us is about something else entirely: “Is One who creates like one who does not create? Would you now take heed?” [16:17] That question remains the same, whatever the mechanism turns out to be.

If the Quran said it first, why are most scientists not convinced?

Because a verse is a sign, and a sign does not force anybody to believe. It helps the person who is willing to follow where it points. God tells us this Himself. The signs are “for those who possess intelligence” [3:190], and for people who think and people who can hear [30:21-23]. So the condition is right there in the verse. God also tells us that most people will not be convinced, no matter what happens: “Most people, no matter what you do, will not believe.” [12:103] This is not a complaint about scientists. It is simply a description of people in general.

What the Signs Are For

So far, we have looked at what a sign is, the signs around us, the signs inside us, and the places where people found out later what the Quran had already said. There is one more thing left to look at, and without it, everything else on this page would only be a collection of interesting observations.

The signs are there to help us remember God, and God commands us to remember Him: “Once you complete your Contact Prayer (Salat), you shall remember GOD while standing, sitting, or lying down.” [4:103] Standing, sitting and lying down covers every position our body is in throughout the day.

We understand from this verse that our god is whoever or whatever occupies our mind most of the day.

There is one item on the list of proofs that people skip more than any other, so it is good for us to end with it: “Among His proofs are the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colors. In these, there are signs for the knowledgeable.” [30:22] Please notice that the differences between people are placed on the list of God's proofs, and not on a list of problems.

None of this is meant for winning arguments. A sign points like a finger, and it has only ever pointed in one direction, towards God. God tells us what He gave us these abilities for: “He gave you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brains; rarely are you thankful.” [32:9]

What the Quran Says About Creation

Here are the main verses this page is based on, all in one place.

In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are signs for those who possess intelligence.
[3:190]

The verse this whole page is built on.

We will show them our proofs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth. Is your Lord not sufficient, as a witness of all things?
[41:53]

God shows us His proofs in the horizons and within ourselves.

Do the unbelievers not realize that the heaven and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded into existence? And from water we made all living things. Would they believe?
[21:30]

One solid mass at the start, and every living thing made from water.

All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this book. To their Lord, all these creatures will be summoned.
[6:38]

Animals are communities like us, and they will be summoned like us.

Among His proofs is your sleeping during the night or the day, and your working in pursuit of His provisions. In this, there are sufficient proofs for people who can hear.
[30:23]

Our sleep and our day's work are named among God's proofs.

Then we developed the drop into a hanging (embryo), then developed the hanging (embryo) into a bite-size (fetus), then created the bite-size (fetus) into bones, then covered the bones with flesh. We thus produce a new creature. Most blessed is GOD, the best Creator.
[23:14]

Five verbs in this verse, and God is the One doing all of them.

The creation of the heavens and the earth is even more awesome than the creation of the human being, but most people do not know.
[40:57]

A reminder that the heavens and the earth are an even greater creation than we are.

If you count GOD's blessings, you cannot possibly encompass them. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
[16:18]

This is why the list of God's blessings can never be finished.

What to Do With a Sign

A sign is there for us to look at and think about. Nobody is asked to win an argument with it. God gave us hearing, eyesight and understanding, and in the same verse He tells us how rarely we are thankful [32:9].

Growth Journal

Growth Prompt: The Observation Challenge

Let's choose one thing in creation and look at it for ten minutes a day, for one week. It could be a tree outside the window, the moon as it goes through its phases, an insect in the garden, or our own hand. Each evening, let's write three lines: what we noticed today that we missed yesterday, what it tells us about God, and what it is doing that we should learn from and copy.

What did I look at properly this week, and what did it tell me about the One who made it?

See the journal templatesAsk the Knowledge Base
Root & Branch

Keep growing

Every topic on this site connects to the others. Here is where this page leads next.

GodGreatness of GodThe Creator behind all of this creation.GodMonotheismWhy we worship God alone for all of this.GodCommemorating GodKeeping God in mind throughout the day.SubmissionPets & AnimalsAnimals as communities like us, in our daily life.QuranSearch the QuranWhere you can find every verse in the Quran about creation.